LA, behind Conn Smythe-winning goalie Jonathan Quick and captain Dustin Brown, beat the New Jersey Devils in six games for the Cup on June 11, about seven months ago. The 113-day lockout pushed the ceremony into 2013.

After an introduction set to My Chemical Romance's "The Black Parade," the team's staff and players were individually introduced and presented with their rings. Then, each player got to hoist the Cup and briefly skate with it—just as they did in June. Depending on who you follow on Twitter, it was either cool, or a terrible idea.

After local kids and franchise icons like Marcel Dionne handed the banner off, a few Kings skated toward the boards. Some arena crew members did their thing, and up it went, to fans chanting "Let's Go Kings" along with the appropriate organ music.

Then, it was done. And now, the Kings find themselves in the same chase as 29 other teams. Game 1 didn't quite go according to plan—Chicago won 5-2.

"We enjoyed it, but we'll try to learn from it as well," Brown said. "To see our banners going up, and then at the same time not being as sharp as we want to be, it's a mixed feeling. We didn't come out and play as well as we wanted."

Starting with their upset of Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver, the Kings set NHL records by leading all four of their playoff series 3-0 and winning 10 straight road games. Los Angeles eliminated the Western Conference's top three seeds, never faced an elimination game, and only trailed for about 184 minutes in the entire postseason.

With plenty of time to plan during the lockout, the Kings also made a few changes to their arena to honor their first championship, notably moving their banners and retired numbers off the Staples Center wall and hanging them in the rafters.

The Kings had followed the tradition of the NBA's Lakers, their co-tenants in the Forum and Staples, by hanging their banners on the walls of the arenas. But after doubling their number of banners from two to four, the Kings joined every other NHL team and moved their banners into the rafters.